An aspirant's several years search for Allah, made possible by His grace/mercy ,and not through any efforts of the seeker

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

127. If One laysThe Life At God’s Feet: part two

I came across five examples of acts similar to the one narrated in the
previous blog, I.e., willing to die unless one hears from God or His
representatives. Three of them have been previously described. However, they
will be very briefly narrated again.

1. Yogananda’s need to hear from God prior to his going to America.
(Blog 79). When he was ordered to go to America, Sri Yogananda got worried that
he will be lost in the materialism of the West. He started meditating, with the
vow that he will continue praying till death, unless he hears from God. After
several hours of his lamentation, Babaji (the founder of his sect and reputed
to be several hundred years old) came to him, and assured him that his mission
had Divine sanction.

2. Sri Ramakrishna was in utter despair (blog 20). Life was not worth
living. He was sitting in the temple. His eyes fell on the sword hanging on the
wall. He thought of ending his life. Like a mad man he grasped the sword and
ran outside to end his life. The blessed
Mother chose to reveal Herself at that moment. He fell down unconscious, and
was engulfed in a sea of light.

3. Giri Bala. (Blog 80). This holy woman was overweight when she was a
girl. Her mother-in-law constantly criticized her habit of overeating. One day
stung by her mother-in-law’s remarks, she vowed not to eat anything at all! She
prayed to God for help. Help came in the form of her Guru, who taught her some
secret mantras, by which she could live without eating and drinking!

4. Robert
Bogucki, a 33 year old man from Alaska went into Australian desert to find some
spiritual answers. In his own words, “I just wanted to spend a while on my own,
just nobody else around, just make peace with God”. He was rescued after 43
days. He drank muddy water, and ate flowers and wild plants. He was without
food for about 6 weeks and without water for about 12 days. Western Australia’s
Great Sandy Desert is one of the harshest places in the world. God did not let
him die, because he had gone there for the sake of God

5. Brunton met the leader of a spiritual movement called Radha Soamis
that had originated in 19th century (the fraternity exists to this
day) India. His name was Sahibji Maharaj.The leader thought that to
travel on spiritual path, a master was absolutely essential. He told Brunton
the story of his own search for the master.

“I was desperate to find a
master. I asked the trees, the grass, and the sky to enlighten me if truth
existed. I sobbed my heart out like a child.

One day I resolved to give up eating and starve to death, unless and
until the divine power saw fit to grant me some illumination.

The next night I had a vivid dream, wherein a master appeared to me and
revealed himself as such.

I asked his address. His answer was ‘Allahabad ’

I told the dream to a friend, who brought a group photograph, and asked
me if I could recognize the master of my dream. I at once recognized him.”